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Herman Cain's Commentary Archive 2009-2012

October 31, 2010

After Tuesday . . . the long road ahead

October 31, 2010
Conservative Republican control of the House is step one. Taking control of the Senate is step two, regardless of whether we do it in 2010 or 2012. And step three is electing a conservative president in 2012. It will not be as easy as one-two-three, but it can be done and it must be done to take back our government.

This two-year hijacking of our government by an ultra-liberal president and Congress has put this country on a fast and dangerous path to socialism. It has been fast when you consider how fast the national debt has escalated while the economy has stalled. And even though we survived the financial meltdown of late 2008 and early 2009, we are still dangerously close to a double-dip recession. Even worse, a depression is possible depending upon the actions of the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.

The first priority for the newly elected Congress is to rebuild some credibility with the American people. The new political party in control must do what it said it would do, even if it does not ultimately become law. The people are tired of being lied to, deceived and ignored. Congress’s approval rating is at an all-time low for those reasons.

The voters also want the spending and spending deception to stop in a dramatic way. A $1 trillion stimulus bill has not stimulated the economy. It has created 198,000 new federal government jobs, while private sector jobs have decreased by more than 7 million since the end of 2007. The new Congress should do something dramatic, such as ending earmarks in proposed legislation, or refusing to allow any increases in federal budgets, except maybe national security spending and homeland security.

Onerous new legislation and regulations have caused businesses to save their cash, if they have any, because of the massive uncertainty created by this administration and Congress. The new Congress should repeal, rollback and replace those policies that have brought this economy to a halt.

These suggestions are not new, and are small steps on the long road to recovery of our once energetic economy. Congress has got to establish some serious fiscal discipline, and we must reclaim our constitutional liberties.

This can be accomplished, but only if we continue the move back to conservative leadership in Washington, D.C. And it’s going to be tough every step of the way.
The likely results of November 2, 2010 are just the beginning of a long and challenging journey. On November 3, the challenges become greater. Because winning elections is hard, but achieving results in Congress is even harder.

And just as the citizens’ Tea Party movement has heavily impacted the midterm election results of 2010, the movement will also impact the results in Congress going forward. Contrary to the wishes of the liberals and the political elites in Washington, those “tea party people” are not going away.

They are not going away because of the power and reach of the Internet, the pent-up frustration with the government’s inability to truly solve anything of substance. The passion of the people has enabled and empowered a movement to take our government back.

It’s a long road ahead, but the sleeping giant called “We the People” is not going back to sleep again.